Door County Land Trust
Protecting Door County’s Exceptional Lands and Waters Forever
Photos by Naseem Reza
Chambers Island Nature Preserve - Spring 2018 Report What’s Next?
Launching Our Completion Campaign to Raise $350,000 In Our Fifth Year –
Four Years Ago –
A Dream
The Completion Campaign
Our dream was to create a nature preserve on Chambers Island. To make the dream a reality, the Nature Preserve Committee of the Chambers Island Association formed a partnership with the Door County Land Trust (DCLT) and started raising money to acquire as much of the island’s forest and wetlands as possible. Our mission: Save – Sustain – Study.
We have set priorities and are raising funds to complete the nature preserve. Priorities include wetlands critical to Chambers’ habitat and land that will ensure a contiguous interior forest. Acquisitions will be more difficult without the benefit of state matching funds that are no longer available to us, but we continue to look for other grant funding. In the end, the number of acres we can preserve in this completion phase is up to us.
Over the Past Four Years –
Building the Preserve It has been a remarkable endeavor. Our Nature Preserve has grown to 593 acres with another 95 pending. To make such a large preserve possible, islanders and friends donated or pledged an amazing $1.8 million. The Door County Land Trust applied for and received $1.2 million in matching governmental grants. We are now the largest Door County Land Trust nature preserve. Who would have thought it possible? Tom Clay, DCLT Executive Director
We project that $800,000 is needed to finish the job. We have tentative commitments for $450,000 which means we need to raise the final $350,000 to finish what we started five years ago. Then together, as friends and neighbors, we will celebrate the lasting natural legacy we have created. Our efforts will endure for generations. Thanks to each and every one of you for all you have made possible.
Mary Jane Rintelman, CINP Co-Chair
Suzanne Fletcher, CINP Co-Chair
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